A CRY THAT BOTHERS
Jesus leaves Jericho, heading to Jerusalem. He’s accompanied by his disciples and more people. Soon they hear some cries. It’s a blind beggar who from the side of the road directs himself to Jesus: «Son of David, have mercy on me!».
His blindness keeps him from enjoying the life of others. He never can journey to Jerusalem. In addition, the Temple gates would be closed to him: blind people can’t enter into the sacred space. Excluded from life, marginalized by the people, forgotten by God’s representatives, he can only beg compassion from Jesus.
The disciples and followers get irritated. Such cries interrupt their peaceful march toward Jerusalem. They can’t listen peacefully to Jesus’ words. That poor man is a bother. We need to silence his shouts: that’s why «many of them scolded him and told him to keep quiet».
Jesus’ reaction is very different. He can’t keep on his journey ignoring the suffering of that man. «He stopped», making the whole group stop and he asks them to call the blind man. His followers can’t walk behind him without listening to the cries of those who suffer.
The reason is simple. Jesus says it in a thousand ways, in parables, exhortations and scattered sayings: the center of God’s gaze and heart are those who suffer. That’s why he welcomes them and does everything possible for them in a preferential way. His life is above all for those who are maltreated by life or by injustice: those condemned to live without hope.
The cries of those who live badly bother us. It can irritate us to meet them continually in the pages of the Gospel. But we aren’t allowed to «mutilate» their message. There’s no Church of Jesus without listening to those who suffer.
They’re in our path. We can meet them at any moment. Close by or far away from us. They ask for help and compassion. The only Christian posture is that of Jesus before the blind man: «What do you want me to do for you?». This ought to be the attitude of the Church before the world of those who suffer: what do you want us to do for you?
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
